You’d think after four years of driving down to Madison’s UW Natatorium and back, swimming in the WIAA Division 1 State Girls Swimming Championship would by now have gotten old, almost boring, for Logan Gerbitz.

Don’t bet on it.

“I don’t think I’ve gotten used to it yet, being back every time, it’s still just as exciting,” said the Sheboygan North senior, who traveled to State as a relay alternate her freshman year and has gone back as a competitor every year since.

Gerbitz is one of 17 area girls swimmers — and one of just four in Division 1 — slated to leap off starting blocks and spring off diving boards today and tomorrow in Madison. Division 2 teams are scheduled to compete today, with bigger D1 schools swimming their last laps of the year Saturday.

Plymouth leads the area in sheer number of athletes. The D2 Panthers, who rarely fail to send someone to the state meet, will have eight girls — seven swimmers and one diver — in the pool today.

Kohler/Lutheran/Falls will be the area’s best-represented in number of events. A cadre of four athletes are swimming in six Division 2 races, including two relays.

And Kiel/Elkhart Lake, another D2 competitor, is putting a relative rookie diver — Jessica Holzmann has only about two years’ experience on the board — in the running for her first State diving medal.

Gerbitz is hardly alone in boasting veteran status at State. Fellow senior Gabby Tauscheck has tacked on laps in Madison each of the past three years, making her arguably North’s most experienced State swimmer.

The two are part of a school record-setting 400 freestyle relay with teammates and sophomores Erin Fehrman and Ashlyn Prisinger. The same foursome advanced to State in the same relay event last year, placing 16th in Madison. Prisinger also is heading to State in the 100 freestyle.

“Not going to lie, it’s actually really kind of nerve-racking,” Fehrman said of making it back to the state’s top meet, calling “surreal” the experience of putting together a solid run at sectionals. “But I know that throughout the season we’ve been preparing for that moment.”

Prisinger said swimming at State last season has helped the team feel a bit more comfortable before hitting the water again this year, and a newly acquired school record in the 400 relay — the team broke the old record during their sectional meet earlier this month in Cedarburg — is just “an extra bonus.”

“They had a really good year,” coach Chad Prisinger, Ashlyn’s dad, said at one of the team’s practices earlier this week. “Like I said, that (400 freestyle) relay was really strong last year … but it’s even stronger this year. It’s been our big horse I guess you could say that we’ve ridden all season.”

Since 1981 — he started coaching the program two years earlier — athletes from Plymouth have missed the championship meet only six times. They haven’t missed it at all since 1993.

The Panthers didn’t miss a beat this fall. All three relays — a mix of seven swimmers, two of them State veterans — moved past their sectional, as did diver Savannah Arneson.

“Tradition,” Slagle said of what’s helped the school keep an even competitive keel over the decades. The Panthers have won 16 straight Eastern Wisconsin Conference championships. “Kids following through with hard work and dedication and swimming during the summer, swimming during the offseason, those types of things are probably the biggest thing that help us to build some of the teams.”

Maddie Strutz is the Panthers’ most experienced State veteran. She’s making her third appearance today.

“I think it’s less nerve-wracking,” she said of the benefit that years’ worth of experience lends her. Teammate Anna Theisen is making her second appearance at State.

Kohler/Luther./Falls

Amy Silvestri hope it’s raining medals today in Madison.

“I would hope that their relays make top-six and in individual (races), all the girls can get up on the podium and place top-six in at least one or two of their events,” the Kohler/Lutheran/Falls co-op team’s first-year coach said.

Emma Herold and Kellie Hoekstra made their debuts at State last year and are seeded to place high in their individual races again today; both girls are competing in the 50 and 100 freestyles.

Freshman Jenna Silvestri is also competing by herself in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke.

And the three are slated to team up with freshman Kara Friske in a pair of relays: the 200 medley and the 200 freestyle.

“Now that I have the experience, I know what the state meet is like, I can go in being confident about what I’m doing and knowing the experience and the surroundings and being comfortable with that,” Herold said, echoing a lot of what other State-seasoned veterans had to say.

“It’s been a great season,” her coach added, “so anything we can do I think will cap off a great year.”

Kiel/Elkhart Lake

Jessica Holzmann has been on Kiel’s swimming team all four years of high school.

But she didn’t start diving until late in her sophomore year, meaning the senior has developed lightning-fast — in about two years’ time — into a State-bound athlete.

All the more noteworthy considering the mentally tough nature of diving competition, where kids are judged for their carefully honed aerial acrobatics.

“You have to learn how to relax,” Kiel diving coach Darryll Matthies said, noting he’s watched Holzmann improve a lot this year. “Because every little move — I tell them, on the board, every little move that they do, they have to think about and concentrate about, and the more relaxed you are, the easier it will be.”

For her part, Holzmann said she’s aiming just to have fun in what will be her final competition in high school — and her first on the State stage.

“It just feels special to be there,” she said. “Even if it’s for one year, it feels nice.”